November 7, 2011. That was the day set for our little baby to come into the world. My due date was 11/13/11, and we had no intention of inducing early, but at my doctor's appointment on 11/4/11 it was discovered that my blood pressure had suddenly spiked and I was spilling protein in my urine; not good signs. After being ordered for blood work and monitoring of the baby, the decision was made to induce. I was SO upset and scared--I didn't want to induce and was worried that it would make labor worse or cause us to need more interventions. I just wanted things to go naturally and work the way they were supposed to work. Labor never started before the induction day though (and we tried everything), so we checked into our hospital at 4am.
The original plan was to start me on something called Cytotech (or something like that) to see if it would get labor started, but when they checked me I was already 4cm dilated and having contractions. We decided to skip the Cytotech and just went ahead and broke my water and started the Pitocin drip. My parents and in-laws showed up soon after this, and we all hung out as labor progressed. Around 9am or so the contractions were really intense--lasting over a minute and coming really close together. I went ahead and ordered my epidural, which wasn't scary at all. It took a long time for it to completely kick in as I seemed to have a "dead zone" around my left hip that just wouldn't numb. Once that was taken care of though it was just sweet relief and I got to enjoy the rest of the morning and early afternoon hanging out with the family. They checked me every two hours and I pretty consistently dilated a cm an hour. Around 3pm we got the go ahead to start pushing and everyone but Trey left the room in anticipation of shortly meeting our little one. Labor had progressed so smoothly that we were all in high spirits and just couldn't wait.
And this is when everything went downhill. I started pushing and was told that I was a good pusher, which was a huge relief for me because I had this weird fear that I would be a bad pusher and would be all embarrassed and stuff. They were telling me I was doing well though, so push I did. We tried a few different techniques and I really tried to put my all into every push--I wanted this baby out quickly. My left hip started hurting again (BAD) so they called anesthesiology, but they didn't show up. We kept pushing and pushing, with the pain getting worse and worse, but the baby wasn't moving down. I asked for anesthesia again because my hips and pelvis were screaming in pain, made worse with every push. I'd been working with a doctor (intern), but then my doctor came in too. We'd been pushing for an hour and a half but things weren't progressing; they told me they thought the baby's head was stuck on my pelvis and if they could get him loose, he should come right out. They tried the vacuum and had me push as hard as I could, four times per a contraction. They got the head loose and assured me that things should really move along now, but after more hard pushing (and unbelievable pain) nothing was happening. The head was right there, but I couldn't get it out, and that turned out to be because the baby had a shoulder dystocia---even though we'd gotten the head past the pelvis, one of the shoulders got stuck too. Anesthesiology never showed back up and I was FEELING IT ALL, but you could tell the atmosphere had suddenly become much more serious. Although the baby's heart rate seemed to be ok, my doctor said we had to get this baby out. We finally got the head out, but since the baby was so stuck both the doctor's were pulling and twisting, trying to corkscrew the baby out. I could literally see them leaning their weight backwards as I pushed, trying to get this little one out. I'd been pushing for just over 2 hours and was exhausted, but I knew we had to get this done. In the end, I was pushing for all I was worth with two doctor's pulling on the baby and nurses standing above me & shoving their fists as hard as they could into my pelvis to try to push him out. Finally, finally, our baby boy slipped into the world.
Things still weren't ok though. He came out completely blue. They quickly cut the cord & ran him to the other side of the room, to the incubator. Definitely not the "Congratulations, it's a boy!" and laying him on my chest that we'd pictured. He wasn't crying, he was having trouble breathing, and suddenly the NICU team was bursting into the room. I couldn't see anything over the two doctor's who were standing in front of me, though my doctor was constantly asking for updates & telling me what the responses meant. He assured me that the baby was going to be ok, he was just stunned from the last part of the delivery. Trey was sitting next to me, trembling and trying to see around everyone, and one of the NICU nurses was keeping him updated too. All I knew was that my doctor was saying "He's going to be ok", and so in shock I would just nod my head and say "Ok" back. After what seemed like a million minutes a tiny little cry could faintly be heard. He started pinking up and breathing a little better. They brought him over to me just long enough to kiss him and then they took him off to be hooked up to monitors. Meanwhile, my doctor worked on putting me back together and stopping all the bleeding. I felt...numb. The delivery had been so hard after such an easy labor, and I didn't know if my son was truly ok and when I'd get to see him again. But he was here and that was all that mattered.
Robert E. Ryals IV was born at 5:13pm on 11/7/11. He was 9lbs 0.8oz and 22 inches long. Because of the traumatic delivery he looked like he'd been beaten up, with bruises on his face, head, neck, and arms. Because of the shoulder dystocia he also suffered a broken right clavicle. After 4 or 5 hours on the monitors they let us see him for 30 minutes, then took him back again. It wasn't until early the next morning that we got to keep our little one. It was the wildest ride of our lives but we had the most awesome prize in the world to show for it.
We are so thankful that our little boy ended up being pronounced healthy in every way. The bruises have faded and Mom is pretty well healed up too, so now we're working on figuring out life together. Welcome to the world little Robert, we love you!
